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GENERAL EISENHOWER CITES ENEMY’S CONFUSION IN NAZI ARMY GROUP SURRENDER

From the May 6, 1945 Edition of Stars and Stripes

Gen. Eisenhower issued the following statement yesterday at the surrender of German Army Group G:

Today has seen the steady continuation of German demoralization and disintegration on the Western Front.

On the southern flank, Army Group G, commanded by Gen. Schultz, and compromising the German First and 19th Armies, surrendered this afternoon to Gen. Devers.

So great is the confusion among the enemy that the German officer present at the negotiations, Lieut. Gen. Foeitsch, commanding the First German Army, could not get an accurate estimate of the strength of Army Group G.

He believed it numbers between 200,000 and 100,000. He reported that the army itself has food for some days but the local population of some 2,500,000 is facing starvation conditions.

This surrender marks the culmination of eight months of brilliant service in this theater by the Sixth Army Gp., under Gen. Devers. In it are the U.S. Seventh and the French First Armies.

An interesting circumstance in connection with this operation is the fact that the Seventh U.S. Army, which fought in the Mediterranean, later made a successful landing at Marseilles, fought its way northward through the Rhone Valley, into the Saar and finally, encircling Switzerland, linked up again, in the Brenner Pass, with its old friends from the Mediterranean. This is probably one of the longest “left hooks” in history.